the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
2. Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is
any forced, unwanted, non consensual sexual contact or activity.
Note about FGM: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a sexual assault of a high order of criminality. FGM is most often committed against female babies, children, or women, without any form of consent. The claimed purpose of the crime of FGM is protection of personal property inasmuch as the female is considered to be a chatel or 'property' and the alleged "protection" of FGM is the curbing of female promiscuity since the vicious attack on the genitals damages many nerve endings thus destroying sexual pleasure and blunting libido. This is a crime equal to or greater than rape in its violence and consequences. It is a sinister conduct practiced all over the world in concealed places. The perpetrators of FGM are often performing the FGM violence on many victims and therefore the sentencing for FGM criminals should reflect the impact of the crime. Some countries have legislated FGM as a crime and others have not and in those cases it must be treated as a serious sexual assault crime.
3. Was I Raped?
Around the world there is a great variance in the statutes and in common law in defining rape. Most laws require some form of penetration without consent before a charge is laid. That is the fundamental act of rape but the primary ingredient of the crime is lack of consent. Wherever you are, contact us if you need help. We have many doctors, lawyers and other professional volunteers some of whom may be near you.
Even if you did not resist the sexual attack, or were intoxicated, or if you know the person who raped or sexually assaulted you, any forced, unwanted, non consensual sexual contact or activity is a sex crime (of at least sexual assault) and any form of penetration no matter how slight makes it a crime of rape. What to do if I have been raped.
If someone has threatened, coerced, forced, intimidated, compelled you in any way to have intercourse (penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person), even if you were forced to say "yes", you were raped. What to do.
If you were asleep, intoxicated, incapacitated by other means, if there was penetration no matter how slight of your vagina or anus with any of the rapists body parts or any object, or oral penetration by a sex organ, it is a rape crime, regardless of your incapacitation. What to do if I have been raped.
Unwanted sexual contact is a major assault crime, even if not rape (penetration). An act that threatens the safety of the person in any manner whatsoever, anywhere, is an assault, but based on the victim-impact-consequences a sexual assault can never be considered a summary/misdemeanor/minor crime. The safety of the person from this form of crime is an inalienable human right.
4. When Combatants Rape in War Zones it is a War Crime
Because of the inherent coerciveness of armed conflict, The RINJ Foundation adduces that in any instance a combatant in a war zone has sexual contact with a civilian, a rape and therefore a War Crime has been committed.
Case Report of Rape in A War Zone Please Complete This Form
With volunteer investigators in the field and with online data collection our goal is to gather evidence and build a war-crime case to arrest and imprison war criminals who have committed the war crime of rape in a war zone. If you have pictures of the location of the crime or the perpetrator(s) or any pictures or documents that would help the case please upload them here. You can come back to this form and complete it. In the message area of the form, please provide as much information as possible including languages you speak. A representative of the RINJ Foundation will contact you to get more details. If you have questions the following links may provide you with answers.
Think about the need to assure every person equally (no matter their gender, sexual preference, race, colour or creed) the basic inalienable human right of personal safety. Rape is one of the most horrible violations of personal safety. It's an extremely agregious crime that impacts everyone.
In the experience of The RINJ Foundation's volunteers and advisors, rape crime is prolific and has no gender nor age boundaries. While the majority of cases of reported rape/sexual assault occur to females between the ages of 13 and 25, regardless of race, class, religion, occupation or physical appearance, a significant number of men are sexually assaulted or raped every year. A significant number of women are sexually assaulted or raped every single minute. A significant number of children (boys and girls) are raped every minute somewhere in the world.
Any person is a potential victim of this crime. There is a large number of boys and men raped by both men and women. Rape is everyone's problem.
6. Rape Crime Predominantly Victimizes Women and Children
The RINJ Foundation asserts that violence toward women is a growing problem. Some females fall prey to violence before they are born, when expectant parents abort their unborn daughters, hoping for sons instead. In other societies, girls are subjected to such traditional practices as complex female genital mutilation (FGM) or simple FGM-circumcision, which leave them maimed and traumatized. In other instances, they are compelled to marry as children, before they are physically, mentally or emotionally mature.
Women are victims of incest, rape and domestic violence that often lead to trauma, physical handicap or death.
And rape is still being used as a weapon of war, a strategy used to subjugate and terrify entire communities. Soldiers deliberately impregnate women of different ethnic groups and abandon them when it is too late to get an abortion.
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The number of reported rapes is lower than both incidence and prevalence rates (Walby and Allen, 2004).
7. What are common consequences of rape for survivors?
Following a sexual assault, due to the severe psychological loss, feelings of wholeness, strength, trust and self control are lost.
The physical impact of sexual assault involves a higher chance of having a sexually transmitted disease (STD), unwanted pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, gastrointestinal tract disorders, gynecological and pregnancy complications, migraine headaches, back and facial pains.
The psychological impact can include shock, denial, fear, confusion, anxiety, withdrawal, guilt, distrust of others, emotional detachment, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and eating/feeding disorders including unhealthy eating habits.
The social impact can include strained relationships, less emotional support, less frequent contact with friends and family, and a lower likelihood of marriage. In some countries, complete ostracization and death can be the social impact.
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The humanitarian news organization IRIN claims that an estimated 500,000 rapes are committed annually in South Africa, once called the world's rape capital.'
8a. Consent
In the absence of clear, positive agreement for sexual contact there is no consent. Lack of consent is the crucial component of sex crime. Sexual conduct becomes criminal when sexual touch is not consented to, either because the offender forces another person to be sexual against his or her will, or because the other person is considered incapable of consent or to have a diminished mental capacity to give consent.
8b. Those who are deemed incapable of consent include:
minor children under the jurisdiction's age of consent, regardless of their mental abilities to understand the nature of the act and their ability to refuse;
a developmentally disabled person;
someone who is mentally ill; and
a person who is incapacitated, drugged, drunk, or unconscious or otherwise physically helpless. What to do if I have been raped.
8c. Minors Can't Consent Thus Sex with a Minor by an Adult is Rape
The possible exception would be in regions where local law specifies an exception. This would relate to sex between minors. Sex with a minor above a certain age (i.e.: 14 years of age or more but not yet 16, the age of consent) is criminalized only if the offender is older than the victim by a certain number of years (i.e.: teenage boy friend/girl friend of close age.) In other words, 14-year-old-children or near 14, having sex with children over 14 but not yet at the age of consent at 16. One needs to know local laws to understand "exceptions". Generally around the world, there are no exceptions and sex with a person below the age of consent is a very serious crime.
Let's talk about that "age of consent" issue.
RINJ advocates a global age of consent of 16.
16-Year-old persons of sound mind can reasonably be expected to decide carefully and thoughtfully what happens to their bodies.
The State has a greater burden of responsibility for education than it does for legislating the life of married constituents' in their bedrooms. A 16-year-old can marry.
Deciding an age of consent needs a balance somewhere between 'informed consent of a sufficiently mature individual' and the 'rights of the individual'.
Looking at the extremes in age of consent.
The ages of 12/13 are (i.e.: Korea, Paraguay, Philippines, Malta) extremely dangerous. This immature age is a borderline child-bearing age where pregnancy would likely kill child and baby in a significant percentile of the population. Informed consent seems impossible and puberty may not have been attained at this age. The State has a significant burden of responsibility to help parents protect children and fails on that burden when encouraging sex with such young children.
The imposed age of consent of 18 to 21 is pretentious, draconian patriarchal law with one purpose only: oppressing young women. Lawmakers of these laws intend to make young women the chattels of the state or the family and community.
Sixteen years of age should be the age of consent globally and that would apply to any person no matter who they have sex with. Defining age of consent on the basis of same versus opposite sex coupling is another violation of the rights of the individual.
8d. Diminished Consent Sex by a Person in Authority or a Mental Health Care Provider is a crime
Many nations criminalize diminished-consent sex between a person in authority, such as a teacher, police officer or prison guard, and someone over whom that person has authority, like a student, a person in police custody, or a prisoner. The rationale for criminalizing this conduct is that the capacity to consent is diminished by the authority that the teacher or other authority figure has over the student or other person.
Sex is sometimes criminalized between a psychotherapist or other mental health care provider and a client or patient, on the grounds that the nature of the relationship and the client's vulnerable position makes the client or patient incapable of knowing, voluntary consent.
9. Legal Defence Against Rape Charges
Defendants charged with rape have the usual defenses available to all criminal defendants, starting with 'It was someone else who did this rape.' A defendant can also claim that the sexual activity was consensual and therefore not rape. In a rape case, there can be significant questions about what constitutes consent or what constitutes refusal. This has led to the infamous question of when does 'No' mean 'No?' Does the word constitute a lack of consent as soon as it is spoken, or must the victim object more vigorously?
Another possible defense is an insanity plea, in which the defense argues that the person accused of rape is mentally ill and did not have the capacity to control his behavior, to form criminal intent to do the rape, or to understand what he was doing or that his actions were unlawful.
Gender violence is a complex issue that includes a variety of aggressive acts like relationship violence in heterosexual and same sex partnerships, and also rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, prostitution, confinement, restraint, forcible oppression, and even sex trafficking. Gender violence is nearly always seen in crimes of genocide.
"Gender-based violence" (GBV) as a phrase is most often used to convey the idea that the violence serves to maintain some type of structural gender inequality, and in reality includes all types of violence against women, children, adolescents, gay and transgender people. This type of violence in some way influences or is influenced by gender relations
Gender is also the most powerful predictor of rape, sexual assault and relationship violence. Statistically these crimes are predominantly against women and perpetrated by men. Gender violence highlights a male-patterned violence in war zones and in 'peace-time': a prevalent violence committed most often by men, often motivated by aggression, revenge, competition, and entitlement, and includes sexual and other violence against women, partners and children.
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Many cultures and religions today share the view of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas who argued that rape, though sinful, was much less sinful than masturbation or coitus interruptus, because it fulfilled the procreative function of sex, while the other acts violated the purpose of sex.
Preamble: Current penalties seem ineffective in preventing recidivism. (i.e.: Very few men rape but those that do rape often.)
The RINJ Foundation urges the Court to follow these sentencing guidelines on conviction of a rapist:
* Make all rapists and most attempted rapists subject to long indeterminate sentences (min. 5 years for 'attempt rape');
* Use prison terms ranging from 10 years to 30 years to life;
* Use life without parole for forcible rapes of victims under 14;
* Use a range of 7, 10, or 15-to-25 years for rapes of adult victims, while using a 30 to life term when a sexually violent repeat predator specification is proved;
* For 15-year + sentences, impose a mandatory release-review by the sentencing court, available after the minimum term is served, parallel to the Parole Board's reviews. If either entity rejects release the term is extended by another year. On failing a review at that time, an application can be made each three years;
* For repeat violent offender penalties, increase the definite term to 20 years.
Donate to The RINJ Foundation or Interac e-Transfer to the email address below. Interac e-Transfer is a simple, convenient and secure way to send money directly from one bank account direct to The RINJ Foundation's bank account.
For an INTERAC email transfer all you need is access to online or mobile banking through a participating financial institution, and you can send money without sharing any personal or financial information. If you would like your gift to honour someone, please inform us at the same email address.
Be a part of this important humanitarian action. #WithRefugees.
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Following a rape, a survivor may face violence or threats thereof from the rapist, and, in some cultures, from the victim's own family and relatives.
